COVER - Frozen Soul: “We were wrapping up the record, and I just thought, ‘I wonder if Gerard would be down.’”

“We left the studio with a record we fucking loved,” proudly retorted CHAD GREEN, frontman of death-metal stars FROZEN SOUL. In just five years, the band has spread its icy, raucous sound across the scene, having opened for powerhouses in the industry such as NAPALM DEATH, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, and HEAVEN SHALL BURN, as well as a run of headline tours of their own. Their single, No Place of Warmth, the title track of their recently released album, has already sent ripples across the community; a sure response to GERARD WAY unexpectedly delivering death metal vocals. We caught up with the band to dig into the frozen nitty-gritty of their new record and find out where they’re headed next.

While those of us across the pond might not instinctively associate Texas with extreme metal, the state has undoubtedly become a breeding ground for it. GREEN admitted that he didn’t fully find heavy music until his teenage years, reflecting on a rocky upbringing that led to him finding solace in it. “I resonated with the anger, and not feeling confident enough in myself to do something about it,” he explained. That emotional foundation now sits at the core of FROZEN SOUL’s identity. For GREEN, the band has always been about self-empowerment, with the band saying, “It’s just about having something to help you get through the day.” Music, he said, is what makes him feel alive, and he hopes their unrelenting sound can offer others the same sense of strength and release.

While FROZEN SOUL has been riding a wave of international success on the road, that momentum came at a cost. Their upcoming album, NO PLACE OF WARMTH, was created under relentless pressure. “We were touring so much, it’s hard to get home and want to write music,” GREEN admitted. “I didn’t even remember how to write music.” After coming home from touring, the process was all-consuming: “Pretty much twelve hours a day we were doing stuff with no time off really.” 

That intensity pushed GREEN back to the emotional core of the band, and death metal generally. While the genre is often associated with violent imagery, for him it became a lens to process something far more personal - the loss of his brother three years prior. “I started getting sappy and thinking about my brother and the games we used to play,” he says, reflecting on the grief of losing his biggest supporter. “He was always willing to drop everything to do this shit with me.” The result is two of the album's most personal tracks, Ethereal Dreams and Invoke War, the latter featuring metal icons MACHINE HEAD.

Photo: Kat Stepanikova for Out Of Rage

Discussing Ethereal Dreams, GREEN drifted onto a tangent about his love for EverQuest, an MMORPG he used to play with his brother. He recounted a well-known in-game controversy involving a guild coming close to defeating an unbeatable dragon, only for the developers to despawn it at the last moment. For GREEN and his brother, the story became an inspirational symbol of perseverance and teamwork. In the song, he reimagines his brother as the dragon, but with a rewritten ending about him “winning in the long run, and his legacy surviving for everyone else.” Framed as a warrior's scroll, the track closes with a deeply personal touch. “At the end, I broke character and had lyrics from just me to him… But nobody really knows that.”

While Ethereal Dreams carries the deepest emotional weight, the song that GREEN was most excited for fans to hear was the title track. Explaining how it came together, he pointed to an unlikely connection with GERARD WAY, best known as the voice of MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE. “We became friends with one of his security guys,” he recalled, who eventually put them in touch. While WAY is not known for guttural screaming vocals, bringing him onto the track was surprisingly straightforward. “We were wrapping up the record and one way or another I just thought, ‘I wonder if Gerard would be down,’” GREEN says. He was quick to praise WAY’s approach: “You can tell he’s the kind of guy that just wants to do things that are fun and cool… and he hadn’t sung on a death metal song before.”

As for the reception, GREEN laughs at how quickly WAY’s fanbase caught on. “Even days before the song came out, there were people who found the single artwork and were doing all this research,” he joked. Despite the obvious gap between MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE fans and the death metal world, the response has been largely positive. “We got some hate here and there, but you get hate on everything,” he added. For GREEN, though, these collaborations aren’t about clout or social status. “I’m not a feature chaser, it’s all about friends and homies”, he insisted. “If we are inspired by you, then we wanna make art together.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR7gvLGpDms

With NO PLACE OF WARMTH poised to make an impact, FROZEN SOUL isn’t slowing down. For GREEN, the focus is simple: to keep creating. “You know, just writing more music. It’s crazy to think that right now, I see that as like, the future. When, after the last two records, I was like, ‘how the fuck are we gonna write another record,’” he says with a grin. Beyond the studio, he also mentioned major tours on the horizon. One of his bigger dreams is to do a full-tour experience inspired by the band's current Dallas-based festival, Wrecking Ball Metal Madness. “It’s just like a giant fucking hangout. It’s got all of our friends on it,” said GREEN, “so it would be cool to turn that into a tour.”

Having already played with dream artists, such as CANNIBAL CORPSE and OBITUARY, at some of the biggest venues in the United States, like Red Rocks, GREEN’s vision makes sense. But if you ask him how long they plan to keep going? “I wanna just really run that shit until the wheels fall off.” 

Words: Chloe Sodeau

Live Photo: Kat Stepanikova

Cover Photo: Katie Lewellyn

Cover Design: Robert Halls

With Thanks To: Dave Stewart and The Noise Cartel